Quote:The West has less than a year to block Iran's ambition to develop nuclear weapons before it touches off "hyper-proliferation" throughout the Middle East, says Israel's military intelligence chief.

"The most important step for Iran is the first one — independent research and development capacity," said Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze'evi. "They have already begun to enrich uranium, starting in January or February 2006. After that, it isn't important whether the first bomb is built in 2010 or 2015. The damage is done."

Tehran announced in April it had enriched uranium to a level that can be used for producing a domestic energy supply, saying it would continue to escalate the enrichment program.

The United States has called for a new international treaty banning production of weapons-grade nuclear material. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council's powerful five permanent members, and Germany, are working on a package of incentives to deter Iran from taking steps that could lead to a nuclear bomb — a move that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appeared to scorn.

"Do you think you are dealing with a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him?" Ahmadinejad said on Iranian state television.

He later softened his stance, saying progress was being made in defusing the crisis.

But Ze'evi said he was "very skeptical" that Tehran would agree to bargain away its right to develop the capacity to produce nuclear weapons. While the Iranian government has insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, it reserves the right to enrich uranium.

The United States has issued strong warnings against continuing the enrichment program. But, Ze'evi said, Washington is unlikely to launch an attack on suspected Iranian nuclear sites very soon, unless it can produce a "smoking gun" to convince the public the situation is critical.

"We're not there yet," Ze'evi told the Toronto Star during a visit to Toronto this week, when he spoke at a fundraising dinner for the Aleh Negev Foundation's project to build a rehabilitation village in southern Israel for severely handicapped children and adults.

"The evidence (of nuclear weapons development) in Iran is stronger than it was in Iraq. But it's crucial to get the United Nations' authority to use force. This is not the problem of an individual country, it's a global problem," Ze'evi said, adding that nuclear weapons technology would spread rapidly throughout the Middle East if Iran acquired a bomb.

But, he said, Israel will not take the lead in striking Iranian targets, as it did by bombing an Iraqi nuclear installation 25 years ago. "Israel doesn't have to lead in this struggle, either militarily or politically. We have enough problems to deal with in our own area. This is a well-defined threat against Europe, the United States and many other countries."

Last week, leaked reports predicted the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, may have found the smoking gun needed to trigger military action.

The agency asked Iran for samples of machinery from a destroyed physics research centre to test whether it showed traces of bomb-grade uranium. Iran denied that the highly enriched material was found on vacuum pumps at the military-linked site northeast of Tehran, and experts said the equipment could have been imported after contamination in another country such as Pakistan.

If Iran is developing a nuclear bomb, Ze'evi said, one of the biggest threats is its command and control structure.

"Surface-to-surface missiles are under the control of the Republican Guard, who are not part of the military. Ballistic missile capabilities are directly under the control of (Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei, not the chief of defence," he said, referring to Iran's hardline supreme leader who succeeded the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Both Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are bitterly opposed to Israel, and Ahmadinejad has brought Iran closer to Israel's sworn enemies, Syria and the new Palestinian Islamist government, Hamas — moves that have sparked anger in the West.

"I think that Westerners often have little understanding of how deep the feeling is in Iran that they are cornered," said Ze'evi. "They really believe that if they have nuclear military capacity everyone will treat Iran differently."

Ze'evi, who briefs the Israeli government and others on security in the Middle East, will leave his job at the end of the year.